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Given Chris Kluwe’s love of role-playing board games, it shouldn’t surprise that his latest actions have more angles than 23-sided dice.

On Tuesday, former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe was demanding that the team, through the law firm of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P, release the six-month independent investigation into Kluwe’s allegations that he was let go due to his gay marriage activism. By Friday night, Kluwe (or at least his attorneys) might have wished the Vikings had kept the findings to themselves.

The record does not support the claim that the Vikings released Kluwe because of his activism on behalf of marriage equality, but instead because of his declining punting performance in 2012 and potentially because of the distraction caused by Kluwe’s activism, as opposed to the substance of such.

Throughout the independent investigation, interviewees characterized Kluwe in similar
ways: someone who is highly intelligent, reads a lot, a prankster or jokester, comfortable with the media and seems to enjoy attention. [Vikings kicker Blair] Walsh stated that Kluwe spent much of his free time in the locker room doing interviews. Walsh also said that Kluwe “loves the attention,” “was focused on everything but football,” and wanted to be in the spotlight.

The fallout was sadly predictable.

The perpetually indignant community – Kluwe’s political base – expressed outrage (outrage!) that the Patron Saint of Punting was a “hypocrite” for engaging in the same sort of outrageously inappropriate locker room behavior that Kluwe supposedly was fighting against by his threatened lawsuit. While many former media supporters were throwing Kluwe under the bus, the man at the center of the report took to twitter to vent, sparing even with gay marriage supporters and potentially getting the Vikings (and maybe himself) deeper into the dark waters of legal action:

Oooh, shall we talk about the time two very well known Vikings players were caught in a compromising situation with an underage girl?

Color me unimpressed with the outrage over Kluwe’s Sandusky jokes. In the pantheon of vulgar Kluwe behavior/comments, his exposed butt cheeks aren’t even as crass as most of his Deadspin articles. But Kluwe’s accusation that he (and presumably, the Vikings) knew about statutory rape and did nothing is a world away from Kluwe’s STD shots at Mankato or calling NFL lockout opponents “assh*le f**kwits.” Kluwe is potentially an accomplice in this (alleged) crime at worst. At best, he kept silent about actions against minors, but the words of a hot-headed, idiotic Special Teams coach were somehow his personal Rubicon…after he was fired.

Kluwe’s defenders, like ProFootballTalk.com’s Mike Florio, are trying to poke holes in the investigation’s conclusions over the Vikings’ assessment on Kluwe’s punting abilities, setting the stage for Kluwe’s threatened lawsuit that he was dismissed for his beliefs, not his on-field actions. Despite all the vitriol, the merits of any potential Kluwe lawsuit are few and far between, and minus a heretofore undiscovered “smoking gun” document or testimony, a legal Trojan Horse for the entire NFL should Kluwe prevail.

NFL history, and Minnesota Vikings’ history, is replete with older veterans being replaced for players deemed to have a larger upside who can be signed for less money. In the last several seasons, the Vikings alone have cut ties with still capable players like kicker Ryan Longwell or defensive end Jared Allen. These moves aren’t always right or popular (SITD argued against the Allen move months ago) or consistent across franchises. Denver’s punter, Britton Colquitt, is the highest paid punter in the NFL, earning $3.9 million a year for a 46.1 yards per punt average. Chris Kluwe was making $1.5 million, due to increase to over $2 million, for a career average of 44.4 yards per punt. Jeff Locke kicked an average of 44.2 yards for roughly $400,000 for the Vikings in 2013. Is any of that logical? By NFL standards, for better or worse, yes.

If Chris Kluwe can convince a jury that a $1.5 million punter with the league’s 22nd best average cannot be cut for a younger, cheaper option because said player is outspoken, then the NFL’s entire collective bargaining agreement will be up for grabs. In a league with an openly gay 7th round draft pick who isn’t assured of making the team, what will stop current and future NFL players from adopting controversial political/social causes if they believe doing so will complicate their release? Will the next Tim Tebow decide that his Christianity, not his throwing motion, was the motivating factor in his cutting, and sue his former employer?

A Kluwe victory (again, barring new evidence) means a more political NFL – an outcome that can only hurt the most popular sporting brand in the country.

That changed Tuesday as Kluwe charged that the Vikings’ investigation has concluded and that the lack of public disclosure over the findings proved Kluwe’s allegations of bigotry:

The onetime punter said Tuesday the team is “reneging on a promise” to release a copy of its completed investigation of alleged anti-gay sentiments expressed by special teams coach Mike Priefer during the 2012 season.

Kluwe and his attorney, Clayton Halunen, announced at a morning news conference that they will file suit against the Vikings alleging discrimination on the grounds of religion, human rights, defamation and “torturous interference for contractual relations.”

The move is self-aggrandizing and potentially premature (the Vikings said the independent investigatory group would provide a report this week). Had the press conference included accusations of the team of being “lustful c**kmonsters,” it would have been vintage Kluwe.

It was also a somewhat smart public relations ploy. Now, whenever Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P release their findings, Kluwe can claim his pressure forced the team to do so. And Kluwe’s willingness to forgo a lawsuit for a monetary settlement that goes towards an LGBT cause also assists both the Vikings, in helping the issue go away faster, and Kluwe himself as even old media allies questioned the punter’s motivations (the KFAN Morning Show, who often gave Kluwe free-rein to voice his opinions on all matter of subjects, openly wondered if he was making a money grab this morning).

But “somewhat smart” isn’t the same as “smart.” Kluwe’s strategy only truly works if the independent investigation proves some or all of Kluwe’s anecdotes, in particular his claim that Mike Priefer suggested moving gay people to an island and hitting it with a nuclear bomb. Not unlike the current Jesse Ventura defamation suit, Kluwe’s case ultimately comes down to a “he said/he said” legal battle. Even if Kluwe is 100% accurate in quoting Vikings’ staff, he would still have to prove a correlation between comments like Priefer’s and his cutting in 2013. The Vikings can respond about Kluwe’s declining skills and (for the position) high salary – reasons that even Kluwe cited…when cut last summer by the Oakland Raiders.

Since the occupation began on October 7, there have been a number of attempts to remove the protestors from The People’s Plaza ( also known as the Hennepin County Government Plaza).

No, Bill. It’s known as Hennepin County Government Plaza. A bunch of spoiled dilettantes are calling it People’s Plaza, but nobody that anyone in Henco voted for made that decision, so…no. It’s not People’s Plaza.

But since y’all are so concerned about First Amendment rights on the plaza, maybe Minnesota Concealed Carry Reform Now should have its next open carry picnic there. Maybe this Sunday. Because we’re all about rights, too.

…that while Obama has aggressively flirted, to the point of tongue-kissing, with the “Occupy” “movement” since day 1, and the media has been fluffing the “grassroots” “uprising” more aggressively than an up-and-coming production assistant on a pr0no shoot…

Two months ago, the White House, Democrats, and the MSM were all sure that the #OccupyWallStreet movement would save them in 2012. With thousands of astro-turfed morons in the streets raging against Wall Street, Obama’s allies hoped to use said morons to create a silver lining in the economic cloud he himself created.

Obama’s goal was pretty simple; create (indirectly, through the unions that’ve been paying the freight for these “protests” all along) a sense that there was a mass movement protesting against the anonymous forces that were keeping the little guy down (but not, of course, the Obama administraiton, which had uncontested control of Congress for two years).

The hope was that by repeating this message incessantly, enough voters could be convinced that Wall Street, and by extension, evil Republicans, were to blame for our chronic unemployment, record deficits, and stillborn economic growth. President Obama who?

And Obama jumped on the “movement”- his movement – from the beginning:

Now, of course, “Occupy” is rapidly becoming about as popular as Nickelback with voters. And the AP is dutifully doing damage control for the President they desperately want to keep in office:

And it looks as thought the Associated Press has decided to start the memory-holing with the following:

“Democrats See Minefield in Occupy Protests

NEW YORK (AP) — The Republican Party and the tea party seemed to be a natural political pairing. But what may have seemed like another politically beneficial alliance — Democrats and Occupy Wall Street — hasn’t happened.”

Insert record scratch here.

Sorry AP, but the only reason Democrats see a minefield is because they’re standing in it.

Nolte helpfully exhumes some history that the Dems would rather have disappear – stories of Dems jumping on the Occupy bandwagon:

…House Democrats. And look, the story about House Democrats endorsing Occupy is an AP story!

The Occupy movement is still looking for the big moment that the media – who are still largely sympathetic – can flog into an epochal, or at least society-altering, event. It’s called a “Kent State Moment” – which, as Zombie at Pajamas Media notes…:

…when modern liberal pundits wish for an OWS “Kent State moment,” they’re not wishing for fatalities, but rather for the appearance of that one photograph which will reverberate around the world and forever establish the Occupiers as oppressed victims. It is the photograph, not the shootings, that is the “Kent State moment.”

The "Kent State Moment".

The Dorothea Lange Moment

So far, they haven’t got it — not for want of trying. For the last several days The San Francisco Chronicle has helpfully featured a slide show of nominees on its Web site to hopefully stir up interest in one or another iconic martyr image, but so far, no Occupy photos have quite caught on, Kent State-style.

And here in Minneapolis, with our city’s long tradition of great regional theatre (and all the would-be actors that that scene draws to the city)?

On Saturday, a group of “occupiers” went to the former (?) home of a U of M lecturer that’s been foreclosed for some time now, and, um, “occupied” it. The police responded. And as the first serious snow of the season fell, one of the dimmer bulbs among the “occupiers” decided to stand in the path of one of the cop cars.

The cop opted to give the lad a nudge (as opposed to jumping from his car and cuffing him then and there which, to be fair, was what the young buck was looking for):

Twitter glowed all weekend with reports that a cop had “tried to run an Occupier down with his car”, and “attacked” him with a “lethal weapon”.

The first five minutes of this video – by Sally Zelikovsky and Steve Kemp of TeaPartyTelevision – almost looks like OccupyMN; placid enough, but with a lot of flowery semiliterate arrested-adolescent rhetoric (“It looks like the rich don’t want to give it up, so we’re going to have to take it”).

The last five minutes – with the black-clad, masked “anarchist” mob destroying property and intimidating people – documents more violence, hatred and destruction than occurred at every Tea Party rally, ever.

I know that I’ve pretty much given up trying to keep up with all the stories of the violence and depravity at the various “Occupy” sites around the country over at my “Climate Of Hate” page; there’s just been too much for what is supposed to be a series of capsule summaries of individual events. “Occupy” has turned, with a nod to “Iowa Hawk”, into “Rat-infested Nazi-endorsed rape camps”.

While at the “Occupy Minnesota” “rally” over the weekend, I saw a few signs saying that “Labor Creates Wealth”.

Now, I’ve got nothing against labor. I work for a living; without someone to build things to sell, capital and management will be more or less out to dry.

But does labor create wealth?

For those of you who believe this, I’m going to propose an experiment.

Do some work. Any work at all. Dig a ditch, draw a painting, ride a bike from downtown to downtown, bake a tray of cookies, write a blog post, play guitar in the skyway, build a dog house, make your bed, it doesn’t matter. Just do some…labor.

Check to see if you have gotten any “wealth” – money, food, lodging, coffee beans, green stamps, trading cards, coupons, strings of beads – by simple dint of having labored.

I’m guessing “no”. And without wanting to spoil the experiment, I’m going to speculate on exactly why.

Without someone willing to pay you something for that “labor”, the “labor” you did in #1 above was just something you did for fun (hopefully; I mean, you didn’t really expect to be paid, did you?)

And who is it that finds someone who needs, and is willing to pay for, a ditch or a drawing or for you to ride your bike, or is hungry for cookies or your insight or your music, or needs a dog house?

Management.

Now, you could very well be your own manager – it happens all the time.

And unless you dig with your hands, draw with your blood, inherited a bike, conjure flour and sugar and chocolate chips and butter and heat from pure mind power, can ethically blog from the library, imitate a guitar with your voice, or pound nails with your face, someone needs to “invest” in a shovel, a pencil, a bike, ingredients and a stove and gas, a computer, a guitar, and a hammer and some wood, in the hopes that they’ll generate a “return” on the investment – money or food or lodging or whatever you get for your labor. Again – you could be the investor! But without someone – you, your mom, a venture capitalist, or a bank listed on the NYSE – to “invest” in making sure you have the tools you need to make sure your labor produces something to take to market, you’ll be, well, pounding nails with your face, as it were.

“We will picket on public property as close to your house as we can every day. We will harrass the ever loving shit out of you all the time. Campus is OCCUPIED. State street is OCCUPIED. The Square is OCCUPIED. Vilas, Schenk’s Corners, Atwood, Willy Street – Occupied, Occupied, Occupied, Occupied. Did you really think it was all about the Capitol? Fuck the Capitol, we are the CITY… We have the numbers and we don’t back down from anyone. We all know each other. We all know each other. We know each other from Service Industry Night at the Orpheum, because we’re regulars at the same coffee shops, restaurants and bars, we know each other from the co-ops, we know each other because we’ve had a million jobs each (and we all worked at CapTel at least once), because we live in every shitty townie house in ever-changing groups of 2 – 7 people, because we are young and horny and screw each other incessantly, because we’re all on facebook, and because we aren’t anti-social, life-denying, world-sterilizing pieces of human garbage like the two of you. WE WILL FUCK YOU UP. We will throw our baseballs in your lawn, you cranky old pieces of shit, and then we will come get them back. What are you gonna do? Shoot us? Get Wausau Tea Patriots to form an ad hoc militia on your front lawn? That would be fucking HILAROUS to us. You could get to know the assholes on your side in real fucking life instead of sponging off the civil society we provide for you every single day you draw breath.”

Thanks for that “civil society”, scumbags!

The not-very-fringe, over-entitled, spoiled-rotten near-left is the moldy underbelly of American society.

Every example of true mass depravity in recent American history – every one, without exception – has come from the Big Left.

No exceptions.

Answer for this, lefties.

Of course, whenever a lefty decides to run off at the mouth, a conservative blogger is there to humiliate their entitled, upper-middle-class asses. In this case, it’s Robert Stacy “The Other” McCain (emphasis added):

The terroristic screed against University of Wisconsin law professor Ann Althouse was posted on a Web account of Madison resident Jim Shankman.

In a Facebook status update about 9 p.m. this evening, Shankman wrote:

Because of a right-blogosphere campaign to silence me, I have been forced to commit Identity Suicide. I have never supported or advocated violence for any purpose other than self-defense against terror attacks by the armed wing of the American Right….

A “campaign to silence” you, Jim? And what was your obscenity-filled rant against Professor Althouse?

McCain also adds:

We have seen this before in American history. The lesson is a bit too close to home — and a bit too fresh in memory – for me to let it pass unmentioned. The privileged never surrender privilege willingly. They employ demagogic appeals to rally others to their self-interested “cause” by demonizing those who dare challenge them. And if someone gets hurt in the process, if some of those duped by the demagoguery decide to turn wrathful words into violent deeds . . .

Madison has become the Neshoba County, Mississippi, of this season. “Workers’ rights” is the Jim Crow of 2011 and government-employee unions are the new Klan.

Naturally, not a word from the MSM.

UPDATE: Ann Althouse will join us on the Northern Alliance at 1PM tomorrow on AM1280. Tune in.

Two years ago, a small number of Tea Partiers carried guns to the rallies.

In every single example, the owners followed applicable state laws; they either had permits for open-carry, or were in states that didn’t restrict open carry of handguns and/or long arms, whichever were applicable.

And for all of the left’s barbering on the subject, not one single episode of violence was ever, not once, pinned to a Tea Partier, save for a single threatening phone call, and that caller’s been convicted. Not that the left didn’t try; every time a Tea Partier sneexed or looked the wrong way, someone tried to claim there was violence, racism or both. The only actual physical violence involving the Tea Party was carried out by counterprotesters and supporters of liberal congresscritters at Town Hall meetings.

But those Tea Partiers with their guns (which, for the record, I found counterproductive; no sense inflaming your opposition’s most paranoid instincts for no good reason) were legal – with no excpetions that I’m aware of.

Dozens of rounds of live ammunition were found outside the Capitol Thursday morning, law enforcement officials said.

Dane County deputies found 11 rounds near the State street entrance Thursday morning, said UW-Madison Police Chief Susan Riseling. Twenty-nine rounds were found near the King Street entrance, and one round was found near the North Hamilton Street entrance, Riseling said.

Department of Administration lawyer Steven Means is asking that the Capitol be cleared for a security check.

Riseling said all the bullets were 22-caliber long rifle hollow points. Officers were conducting a sweep of the grassy areas and bushes outside the Capitol.

Bear in mind that Wisconsin is one of few states where it is completely illegal for a civilian to get any carry permit under and circumstances.

So if it’s true – we’ll check back – it means that some pro-union protester is walking around with an utterly illegal firearm. (Or that some protester is dropping ammo around to freak people out. Either way…)

I see some people descending into irrationality — beginning to form a cultish mentality that demonizes outsiders. Meade was at a demonstration, photographing it. A demonstration is — to a clear-thinking person — a collection of people asking to be seen, wanting to be photographed. Yet when they perceive that Meade isn’t one of them they flip — it’s a Flip camera — into fear. Meade had been trying to talk to them rationally about why the pro-Walker woman might not want to debate her ideas in that setting, and instead of seeing Meade as a citizen who’s finding out what’s going on and helping 2 women who are surrounded and outnumbered, they spread their “plant” theory. And it’s not just a theory. They know he’s a plant.

Michelle Malkin promises to do “the reporting the Tea Party-bashing national media won’t do on the rabid outbreak of progressive incivility and violence at Big Labor protests across the country.” Sounds promising! But here’s what she delivers.

– Protesters call Scott Walker a “Koch whore.”

– Two other protesters made crude sexual references.

I suppose you could call this…:

…a “crude sexual reference”.

I mean, come on – if a Tea Partier had been caught with a sign like this, ever, we’d still be hearing about it.

– Last month a liberal talk show host said GOP Lieutenant Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch had performed “fellatio” on other talkers.

And as we discovered during the 2008 campaign, no crudity is beyond the pale…when referring to conservative women.

– At a rally in Providence, one asshole shoved a cameraman and was arrested and taken away, union members cheering the arrest.

Well, good.

What do they want, a cookie?

– In Denver, a black conservative was insulted in racial terms.

And here, Malkin was right; the media observes a very pronounced double standards. Here was the attack on the black tea partier:

– At a protest outside FreedomWorks’ office, a union member being filmed and interviewed got pissed and struck Tabitha Hale; someone else called someone a “bad Jew.”

Let’s be clear on this: This guy…:

…allegedly punched her:

Where are the thugs, indeed?

But Weigel misses the point. It’s not that there are thugs at a union action. That’s like saying “that Mafioso just ate lasagna!”

No – the point is that the media observes a systematic double standard; leftist violence and thuggery is ignored, while the media goes out of its way to find, even manufacture, crimes on the right.

Weigel notes (as part of an apology for impugning Michelle Malkin’s journalism):

I just spent four days in Madison and the state Capitol, reporting, and saw absolutely no violence. There were no arrests on Saturday, when 80,000 liberals rallied and a smaller number of Tea Partiers counter-protested. There were no arrests last night when hundreds of angry protesters watched the GOP-led Assembly pass the budget repair act. There are no arrests, so far, in Madison. And Malkin cites actual violence in only two cities where protests have taken place.

And Weigel skips past the violence – the attacks in Providence and DC – pretty blithely…

…and it’s irrelevant. Because thuggery isn’t just about hitting people.

Apparently the media isn’t curious about mass movements any more, since conservative bloggers have been documenting enough reprehensible, repulsive signage in Madison to re-side every shanty in Port-Au-Prince.

Berg’s Seventh Law of Liberal Projection – When a Liberal issues a group defamation or assault on conservatives’ ethics, character or respect for liberty, they are at best projecting, and at worst drawing attention away from their own misdeeds.

Or planned misdeeds.

So keep those cameras spinning. Because the media will hang everything that goes wrong on you, and you know it.

Two of the three gubernatorial candidates have no idea how they’re going to fix it; they’re a step or two shy of hosting a contest looking for ideas.

The DFL, which has controlled the legislature for the past four years and dominated it completely for two, has spent the whole time whining about wanting more money to give to public employee unions and all but claiming Tim Pawlenty personally blew up the 35W bridge, and telling you you’re a racist who hates children if you don’t agree.

Minnesota’s health care – which, with its private/public partnership currently insures well over 90% of Minnesotans, including virtually all of them that actually want insurance – is about to get tossed into a vortex of government-controlled mediocrity by Obamacare.

So what do our brilliant DFL hamsters think is the real priority?

Recycling fake outrage over the FBI’s raids on protesters at the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul two years ago (in the House and the Senate).

From the Senate bill:

1.1A resolution1.2memorializing the President of the United States and Congress to review the FBI1.3raids on Minnesota activists.1.4WHEREAS, a number of Minnesotans were issued subpoenas to appear before a grand jury1.5in Chicago in October; and1.6WHEREAS, these Minnesotans have not been arrested or charged with any crime; and1.7WHEREAS, four of these Minnesotans are American Federation of State, County and1.8Municipal Employees members in good standing in the union; and1.9WHEREAS, FBI spokespersons have stated that the raids were prompted by the activities1.10of the four union members, and other individuals subject to the same raids; and1.11WHEREAS, these people are entitled to a presumption of innocence under the United1.12States Constitution; and1.13WHEREAS, every American has the constitutional right to advocate and organize for1.14change of the foreign policy of the United States; and1.15WHEREAS, the recent report by the Department of Justice Inspector General soundly1.16criticized the FBI for improperly targeting domestic peace and antiwar groups for investigation;1.17and1.18WHEREAS, Minnesota’s elected officials have frequently gone on record in defense of1.19trade unionists and others to educate, mobilize, and organize for the legitimate goals of peace,1.20justice, and solidarity with all working people; and2.1WHEREAS, Minnesota’s elected officials disavow any practices or policies which threaten2.2the rights or civil liberties of trade unions and nonviolent peace organizations, and oppose both2.3attacks on traditional constitutional guarantees and the granting of wider powers to the FBI to2.4infiltrate or intimidate community groups, unions, and activists; NOW, THEREFORE,2.5BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that it expresses grave2.6concern that the recent FBI raids are reminiscent of the Palmer Raids of the 1920s, the McCarthy2.7hearings of the 1950s, and the FBI’s harassment of nonviolent civil rights and peace activists of2.8the 1960s and 1970s, and that these raids may be the beginning of a new and dangerous assault on2.9the First Amendment rights of union activists and antiwar peace campaigners.2.10BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that, since2.11no acceptable justification or evidence has been presented for these raids and subpoenas and2.12there is no reason to believe any are forthcoming, it urges Congress to review these arbitrary2.13and capricious raids.2.14BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that, in light2.15of the Inspector General’s recent report on the FBI investigation of certain domestic advocacy2.16groups, we call upon the President of the United States to order an immediate investigation2.17into the circumstances, motivation, and propriety of the judicial and FBI intimidation of these2.18Minnesotans.2.19BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota is2.20directed to prepare copies of this memorial and transmit them to the President of the United States,2.21the President and the Secretary of the United States Senate, the Speaker and the Clerk of the United2.22States House of Representatives, and Minnesota’s Senators and Representatives in Congress.

Glad to see they can prioritize.

UPDATE: Nachman from Loyal Opposition went to the Capitol to protest – one on one, in person. He notes that the resolution, in support of the “Anti-War Committee”, would seem to be a violation of the DFL’s putative core princples:

The Anti-War Committee believes that:

“The Anti-War Committee is opposed to the U.S. military, political, and economic support for the state of Israel. We see Israel as an illegitimate apartheid state, and we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for justice and self-determination. We support the Palestinian right of return, the demand for a dismantling of Israeli settlements, an end the Israeli Occupation, and an end to racist policies in all of the territories. Our work includes protest, education, and solidarity trips to Palestine.” [4]

Aside from being libel, this is their statement of support for the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel, the Salafi Islamists who call for it’s destruction, and, in turn, for the subsequent annihilation of Jewish presence in the Holy Land. The Anti-War Committee and it’s supporters are public about their support for these ends, as their public statements of their support for the re-establishment of supply lines to and material support for the Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamiyya (Hamas – the Islamic Resistance Movement), a designated terrorist organization. [5] The warrants were issued based upon probable cause and pursuant to an investigation concerning violations of “Providing, attempting and conspiring to provide material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations”. [6]

As a reminder, here are the core beliefs of the DFL.

“We, the members of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, in the State Convention assembled, in order to…sustain and advance the principles of liberal democracy, and uphold human rights, civil rights and constitutional government, do establish this Constitution.”

About 20 protesters chanted and toted placards on Sunday near Target Field, hoping to send a message to the Democratic National Committee that it isn’t welcome to hold the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Minneapolis.

I’m amazed that the Strib didn’t jack the number up to 200, or 2,000; maybe there’s progress. Or maybe it’s because it’s the Democrats they’re bagging on, this time.

By the way, I loved one of the comments to the story:

I had 6 adults on my deck last night. And there were 8 kids in the pool. I guess we fell short of the 20 person mark for ongoing coverage. And we were so close!

Minneapolis is duking it out with Charlotte, Cleveland and St. Louis.

There’s been no official confirmation, but protesters Dave Bicking and Janet Nye said their group has information indicating that DNC officials were in Minneapolis this weekend, checking out the city. So the protesters gathered Sunday on a small bridge leading to Target Field, chanting as Twins fans passed by, hoping to get their message through.

“They might not see us because they’re up in the fancy sky box, but they will certainly take notice that we’re here,” Bicking said.

Bicking, 59, and Nye, 63, both of Minneapolis, also protested planning of the 2008 Republican National Convention…

I can’t imagine that any sentient Tic staffer would put the convention here; Minnesota, barring a miracle, is probably still pretty safe Tic territory in 2012; the Dems are in much worse shape in Missouri and Ohio, and North Carolina is legitimately swing-y.

But on the off-chance that Minneapolis gets the nod, let me go on record to say something that not a single DFL politician or significant DFL-leaning blogger could bring themselves to say in 2008; notwithstanding the fact that virtually all political violence in America today is inflicted by some shade of “The Left” or another, not to mention the fact that fewer Republican-sympatizing protesters have been arrested for violence at DNC conventions in the past six years than were standing across from Target Field yesterday, I call on all protesters planning to incite violence and threaten attendees of all political orientations to stay the hell out of Minneapolis, and furthermore hope that if you do come to this city and cause mayhem that you are all arrested and put into holding cells with very lonely lifers.

The clashes began after hundreds of protesters, many advocating against capitalism, tried to march from an outlying neighborhood toward the convention center where the summit is being held.The protesters banged on drums and chanted “Ain’t no power like the power of the people, ’cause the power of the people don’t stop.”

The marchers included small groups of self-described anarchists, some wearing dark clothes and bandanas and carrying black flags. Others wore helmets and safety goggles.

One banner read, “No borders, no banks,” another, “No hope in capitalism.” A few minutes into the march, protesters unfurled a large banner reading “NO BAILOUT NO CAPITALISM” with an encircled “A,” a recognized sign of anarchists.

Violence, injuries and much property damage ensued.

This sort of violence is the inevitable, direct result of the kind of rhetoric we’re getting from the left:

Michael Moore’s assaults on “capitalism”

The rhetoric of the likes of Keith Ellison and Dennis Kucinich – prominent Democratic/leftist legislators

The demonstrations at the homes of AIG executives by groups of rent-an-outragers (we call them “TeabAIGers”), who made it very clear that the political is utterly personal

The writings of vital lefty pundits like Nick Coleman and their disparaging references to “Big Cheeses”…

The anti-business rhetoric of the likes of Andy Stein of the SEIU.

The demonization of conservative causes, groups, and even thoughts by Janet Napolitano

…and many, many more, it’s clear to me that it’s inevitable that the left’s rhetoric on the economy is not only going to lead directly to violence; it’s already led there.

Lefties are upset with RamCo Attorney Susan Gaertner, who is prosecuting eight RNC protesters (who, to be fair, are accused of a lot more than “dissent”, and whose job it is, to be even fairer, to prosecute the accused as opposed to make value judgements about the “protesters'” various “causes”.

But no matter. Glad to see that after a month of calling dissenters “Nazis” and “White Supremacists” and siccing the SEIU on ’em, y’all remembered that whole “dissent is patriotic” bit.

About 30 demonstrators showed up outside a fundraiser for St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman on Friday, objecting to what the group saw as an overreaction by police during last week’s protests outside the Republican National Convention.

Carrying signs that read “I Am Ashamed” and “I Survived 9/1,” the group strolled the sidewalk in front of a St. Anthony Park residence where the event was being held, briefly confronting Coleman when he arrived.

Look, I don’t support government overreach; police overreach against legitimate protest is no better than, say, siccing the FCC on conservative talk radio under the guise of the “Fairness” Doctrine.

But look at what Coleman’s administration – which is of a relatively small city, remember – was facing:

A movement that pledged to “shut down” Saint Paul and the convention

Groups that were threatening to stalk and kidnap delegates and other people.

Credible threats of violence and mayhem from groups that have carried it out in the past (see Seattle, 1999).

Groups that did, in fact, commit violence against delegates on the first day – sandbag attacks on buses, bleach squirted at delegates and so on.

With that background, caution was hardly misplaced.

So did officers possibly use “excessive caution” on protesters who didn’t obey lawful orders to disperse – macing people excessively and so on? Possible.

Did the police break up any protests that were legally permitted, and where the protesters were operating within the conditions of the permit? I’ve been asking counterculture types for the past week, and heard nothing.

The protesters, I suspect, are upset – legitimately at what may have been instances of cops overapplying mace, and illegitimately at the overall approach, which seems not to have had any affect on legal, permitted protests.

And they’re upset because their protests, outside the echo chamber of the perennially-angry far left, had zero affect on the convention, on national policy, on the GOP, and – most galling to them, I suspect – the national press coverage of the convention. Pissed off kids and ageing hippies throwing things in the streets? Dog bites dog. Sarah Palin sweeping all before her? Pitbull bites lightworker.

The protesters barely qualified as a sideshow. Unless you were a cop.

Anyway – good job, Mayor Coleman.

Feel free to keep the good will flowing, by the way, by reconsidering your property tax hikes.

I missed the first two days of the convention due to a family emergency. I didn’t actually get a lot of news; i didn’t go near downtown Saint Paul.

Unfortunately, I had to depend on the news media for information. It was that bad.

Like most party conventions, the RNC was pretty much a scripted, predictable pageant, up until Palin’s speech a week ago (for which I was in attendance), so there wasn’t much news.

Now, the mass of protesters – which turned out to be 1/5 to 1/10 as big as “organizers” had originally predicted? They got media coverage. Not only were most of the mainstream media gamboling about among the clots of the disaffected upper-middle-class whites on the street, but practically half of the “demonstrators” were calling themselves “media” as well. So the protests? Yes, they got covered.

One 80 year old delegate had to be hospitalized from the violence by the Leftists.

The Alabama delegation was one of the buses that was attacked today in Minnesota.

The Leftist, anarchist, Obama-supporting radicals attacked RNC delegates today at the Xcel Center and sprayed them with a toxic substance.

An 80 year old RNC delegate had to be hospitalized!!

With all the video cameras the likes of the Minnesoros Independent were deploying, you’d think this bit of video might have gotten some play. Molly Priesmeyer would probably breezily quip that they’re all just a bunch of old white people; but if she did, it’d be more coverage than all the rest the “citizen journalists” of the lefty altmedia devoted to the lethal attack on people exercising their First Amendment rights.

…a busload of Cub Scouts were en route to the convention, where they were to present the colors to open the convention. A group of protesters–liberals, Obama supporters, or whatever–blocked the road, surrounded the bus, and attacked it, rocking the bus back and forth, denting and scratching the sides, and generally terrifying the children trapped inside. The left-wing protesters attacked a number of buses in the same way, but there is something especially despicable about attacking a group of Cub Scouts.

(UPDATE: Powerline isn’t so sure about this one anymore. Let’s wait a bit on that).

I know some of you leftymedia types read this blog. Where were you when your people attacked the delegates? Most of these attacks occurred before the first demonstration, on 9/1 (which was “highlighted” by anarkids smashing things and attacking the police).

No, I don’t expect an answer. I’ve been asking leftymedia types to answer that one for a week now. Not one has ponied up yet.

The leftymedia is shocked, shocked that the police – who did know about the attacks – didn’t treat the demonstrators, or the lefty alt-media with whom they were pretty much indistinguishable, with kid gloves and greet them like heroes of liberal tolerance.

I’ve seen quite a few “demonstrators” and “professional media” from this past week claim that the police were “out of control” last week at the RNC – even accusations that there was a “police riot”.

And let’s make one thing clear; I oppose police overreaching. Indeed, since an Obama administration would likely try to shut down conservative talk radio and regulate political blogs, I oppose all government overreaching.

But let me ask you all; where was the overreach?

Let’s allow for the moment that I, too, am concerned about some of the reports of excessive use of mace on people who weren’t actively resisting the police. It’s technically and legally a gray area (whether it should be or not is another entire discussion), but let’s acknowledge some mutual concern here, and move on.

And let’s balance that by acknowledging the concern I have that the local lefty media and Sorosphere is trying to ignore both the threat that did exist before the convention – threats to “shut down” the convention, kidnap or harass delegates and so on – as well as the violence that did happen (the sandbag attacks and bum-rushing of the various incoming buses on the first day), to say nothing of the constant, peek-a-boo refusal of the various protest groups to renounce, condemn and work against violence. This was the background against which law enforcement had to work, and it was a daunting one.

With that out of the way, please, “demonstrators” and “professional media”, take a whack at answering these questions, if you please:

At any time, did the Police try to shut down a permitted demonstration that was operating during its permitted time?

If so, were significant numbers of the demonstrators involved engaged in violent or destructive behavior?

Did the police do anything against any protester taking non-violent part in a legally-permitted protest? And remember, by “legally permitted protest”, I mean a protest operating under a permit that had not either expired or been voided due to the demonstration veering outside its permitted limits (because demonstrators have to follow the law, too).

In an “overwhelming display of law-enforcement power”, the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Department executed (ahem) five search warrants and arrested, um, six people before the convention started. The thirty-page affadavit claimed that the six were parts of a conspiracy to commit all manner of mayhem on the convention – chains across freeways, kidnappings, pee-and-poop bombings, tieing up traffic and worse. Which of the Ramco Sheriff’s claims do you contest, and why?